After dissection was banned, schools and colleges will now have to give up on the historic animal specimens in their labs too.

Delhi government's department of forests and wildlife issued a notice on Wednesday asking all government as well as private schools and colleges to declare the kind of specimens and wildlife trophies they have preserved.

These should be put under 'lock and key' and not used anymore, the notice said.

The order came after the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau notified that educational institutions should surrender specimens listed under Wildlife Protection Act

However, teachers are miffed as they insist it will affect the study of biology.

"There is no logic in asking us to remove specimens we have preserved for academic purposes for 70 to 80 years," said a professor of zoology at Delhi University, who did not wish to be named.

He said the museums in universities and colleges cannot be destroyed - though they do not have an option now.

"We all think that UGC should take this matter up on behalf of the stakeholders. This is being done to facilitate private companies to sell their e-content. Using simulation in place of real specimens is not good enough. Are we going to have zoologists who have never or touched an animal during their course?" he added.

The university has specimens of kangaroo, whale, electric fish and many other animals which are shown to aspiring zoologists as part of their course.

The government's direction has come after the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, a statutory body under the central government, notified on April 2 that educational institutions should surrender the specimens of animals listed under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

According to the wildlife board, keeping wildlife trophies and displaying specimens can attract punishment of up to seven years imprisonment or fine

Though the Delhi Government has stopped short of asking schools and colleges to surrender their specimens, they will have to at least take them off their laboratory shelves.

"Display of animals and their trophies in laboratories has been banned by Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and we have simply reiterated it in our notice. Often schools may not be aware which animals are covered by the Wildlife Protection Act. So our purpose is to make them aware and get them to remove the specimens," said Sanjiv Kumar, secretary, department of forests and wildlife.

He added that schools and colleges need not surrender them as yet as the government will have to arrange space to keep them.

"But we would like educational institutions to stop using them," Kumar added.

According to WCCB, keeping wildlife trophies and displaying specimens can attract punishment of up to seven years imprisonment or fine.

Though dissection has been completely done away with at both school and college level, many educational institutions have long preserved specimens in their biology laboratories for students to get familiar with animals.

Lata Vaidyanathan, principal, Modern School, Barakhamba Road said: "We removed the specimens long time ago but there was a concern initially about how biology would be taught without them. But I think technology can step in to make good the loss."